A good friend of mine, knowing that I've want to try a pipe for a long time surprised me today with this starter set from pipes and cigars.com.

Looks like I'm about to fall down another slope.:-)
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Nice, a Dr. Grabow. Pretty decent first piece. Make sure to read plenty in the Newb FAQ for pipes. Drink it all in ;-)
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Check out smokersforum.com Great forum for pipes....everything you'll ever want to know about pipes.
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Welcome. My first pipe was a Grabow, and it still gets used occasionally.
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Congrats jjefrey! :-)
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Nice score, Dr.G's are great work horses. CB Royal is wonderful, grab a pouch of Carter Hall and those two should keep you busy for a while. Enjoy! If you are new to tobacco in general, give it time, your tongue needs to get used to the smoke. Even if some magical way you were able to just grab that stuff, pack it just right, and smoke it perfectly, I would still expect you to get some form of bite....but it will pass and the flavors will come. Pipe cleaners are your friends, use them often.
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Spent some time reading posts today, Lots of good info on that site. Thanks
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Not new to tobacco, been smoking cigars for about 8 years now.

Hoping to sit out on the patio and enjoy my first bowl tomorrow.
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I read through all the tips in getting started thread, and decided to smoke my first bowl of Captain Black on Sunday.

I thing I did OK on packing the pipe, However I smoked to fast and had a serious case of tongue bite. Not the best experience but I will learn from it and hopefully not make that mistake again.
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Welcome to the pod people!
:-)
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Best wishes- it is a nice change of pace from cigars!
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Great looking starter set Jeff:-)

...Agreed!

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I have smoked another 3 bowls. I think I've got the packing down fairly well. The last two bowls I was able to get through with only 4-5 relights, much better than my first attempt. I slowed down my pace and the tongue bite is no longer there.

Overall I'm enjoying the pipe experience. The Captain Black really is not doing much for me, but I'm still breaking in the pipe so that may be part of it.
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Once you get your pipe a going, its great to use that tamping tool to give the bacy a lite tamp from time to time. This helps to keep your bowl of bacy litely compacted with fire, and you (hopefully) will not have to use another match for awhile. Just practice, practice, and practice:-)
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Welcome to another slope. Nice set-up.
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I found drying was the key to my enjoyment once I started to dry my baccy for 20-30 min it burned better and less bite.
and learning how to tamp was also a major step not too hard just light tamps to keep the coals going.
enjoy it
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I think I was tamping a little to hard and possibly causing the pipe to go out, I will lighten up on the pressure next time.

deadrise thanks for the tip I will try letting the tobacco dry for a bit before smoking next time.
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Really is it worth it to dry first and then smoke? I will try it.
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